


Hell

by haisai_andagii



Category: All New X-Factor, X-Factor (Comics), X-Factor Investigations - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-02
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-04 22:05:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3092480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haisai_andagii/pseuds/haisai_andagii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Guido is fresh out of Hell, soulless, with a memory like a sieve.  Layla Miller, his ill-conceived savior, tries to help him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hell

She thumbed through the pictures on her phone.  The images flew by - face after unfamiliar face.

Layla pointed at a man.  He had a friendly face.  It was mischievous, friendly but ultimately held a deep-seated sadness.

"This is James Madrox, a.k.a., Multiple Man," she explained, tapping on the picture with her finger.  Guido noted the mangled state of her nails.

A green haired woman. Beautiful but they way she held her body, he could tell she never really owned it.  She looked like someone who had wasted her life trying to live it for others.

"This is Lorna Dane, a.k.a.. Polaris."

An uptight looking blond.  His handsomeness did little to hide his disdain and desire for control.

"Alex Summers, Havok…"

A sweet-looking girl with bronzed skin and wild sideburns.  A genuine creature constantly living under the boot heel that rested on her slender neck.

"Rahne Sinclair, Wolfsbane."

Shatterstar, Rictor, Quicksilver, M, Siryn…  She scrolled through each one reciting their histories.  Guido felt like a child, listening to his mother telling him a bedtime story.  They were adventures (mostly), detectives (sometimes), lovers (disastrously), friends (precariously), and family (undeniably).  X-Factor was a large part of Guido’s life, whether he remembered it or not, Layla said.

Guido did not believe her.

But he just sat there, watching the faces scroll by, listening to Layla’s words as they shifted through his mind like a sieve.  She spoke of people but all he saw were wretched things beaten and broken by an unforgiving world, unable to escape their piss-poor fates. 

Nothing.  There was nothing.  He felt no pain, sadness, no joy as she showed each one to him.  Nothing.

"Stop," he said, his tone gruff, firm.  "I am tired."

Layla frowned.  She gently rested the phone against the table. 

"Guido…" she replied softly, touching his shoulder.  He winced.  His name in her mouth sounded frightening.  Wrong.  Unsure.

"Why…" he started slowly, rubbing his tired eyes behind his thick, coke-bottle glasses. "How am I here?"

"Guido…"

"I had a hole in my chest so big you could run a Fantasticar through it.   I died, girl.  So, why am I here?"

Layla licked her lips, her eyes fluttering as she tried to formulate the words.

"Because of me," she confessed. "Your return is because I refused to accept what happened."

"You’re not God."

"I am learning that now," she muttered, folding her hands in her lap. "Guido, I’m sorry.  I will fix this.  I will fix you."

"You won’t do shit, kid," Guido returned.  He pushed back from the table and stood up from his chair.  "You ain’t fixin’ nothin’.  I remember one thing, that our world makes no sense.  But death is sometimes just that.  It’s the end.  It don’t matter how many times Jamie or Quickie or Wolverine come back - my folks ain’t.  A lot our loved ones ain’t."

Layla’s eyes were wide as saucers.  Her breath hitched as tears formed in the corner of her eyes.

"I was with them.  My body ain’t hurt no more.  I ain’t gotta fight with anyone no more.  It was a damn gift.  And you made me return it."

He turned and walked off.  He heard her chair scrape against the linoleum floor, the soft patter of her stocking feet, and then, nothing.

Guido dipped and shouldered his massive girth through the kitchen door.

X-Factor - friends or family or nothing - he was going to escape this new hell Layla had put him in.  Even if it meant finding another one.


End file.
